Tag Archives: TJFP 2015

In 2015, our community grant making panel gave out 85 grants to trans-led, grassroots groups focused on trans justice. The panel prioritized supporting groups led by trans women of color at the highest level. Learn more about these amazing trans justice groups, TJFP’s latest funding structure update, and reflections from one of our amazing 2015 community funding panelists.

We promise you’ve never seen a report like this before!

Every penny we raise goes to our grantees with no restrictions and no strings attached, because we truly believe in trans leadership.

Because many grassroots groups are not 501c3s and don’t have fiscal sponsors, we have a innovative model to support these groups simply and directly. We think this model is an exciting opportunity to support grassroots organizing and that means you can still make donations to support the 2016 cycle until May.

In 2015 TJFP recieved over 140 applications. Our community grantmaking panel of trans and gender non conforming activist carefully read over each application, distributing $192,500 amongst 85 grantees. Just think of what we could do with your help in the coming year! No amount too small!

And thank you THINX staff for inviting TJFP to come speak with you and brainstorm how to collaborate on making your products more trans and gender non conforming inclusive and available to those who need them.

“Last Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi grieved the loss of at least 21 transgender women murdered in the U.S. this year as a result of anti-trans bias.

“We can pass a law, we can help to break down barriers in people’s minds,” said Pelosi at her morning press briefing, according to the Washington Blade. “Now we have to get to their hearts.”

Her remarks come on the heels of Sen. Al Franken’s letter the previous day to the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, urging an end to law enforcement’s frequent misgendering of trans murder victims, and an increase in the reporting and tracking of hate crimes against gender-variant people.

The White House also weighed in at an afternoon press conference Thursday. Deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz offered “thoughts and prayers” for the victims and their families, adding that the White House has no new “legislative or official reviews” on the matter. But, “obviously the president’s record on this is well known,” concluded Schultz.

So now that top officials of the federal government are addressing what advocates are calling an epidemic of transgender murders, beyond prayers and existing legislative measures, what can they do?

Drawing from the valiant efforts of advocates, outreach specialists, policymakers, and government officials, here are two steps that Congress and the White House can take to fight deadly violence against transgender people in the United States.”

View the full artice here and learn more about other trans justice groups and organizations providing research, outreach, education, and advocacy.

Comments Off on TJFP mentioned in Advocate article, Here’s How the Feds Can Fight Trans Murders

TJFP is so honored to be speaking today at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religon and Ministry’s Multi-Faith Transgender Summit! TJFP director Gabriel Foster will be one of the key note speakers along with Valerie Spencer.

Tonight is your opportunity to support a film written and directed by a Navajo trans woman AND TJFP’s upcoming Sweetgrass Award that will make grants to Native American/Two Spirit groups and organizations in the US working for trans justice.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or online. Here is a back up link just in case. Just type in Asheville in the location box. We don’t want to loose anyone!

More about the film:

Writer and director Sydney Freeland was born and raised on a Navajo reservation in Gallup, New Mexico—dubbed “Drunktown.” The disconnect between her experiences and the media’s portrayal of reservation life compelled her to create last year’s Sundance success, Drunktown’s Finest. The narrative feature offers not one, but three harrowing interwoven tales of loss and triumph at or around a reservation in Drunktown. Felixia, a trans woman, pursues a spot in the “women of the tribe” calendar. Sick Boy confronts violence and drug abuse. Nizhoni seeks out her past, well after being adopted by a white family. At its core, the film represents the ongoing search for identity and Freeland’s desire to more honestly portray reservation life.

The Trans Justice Funding Project is delighted to be a part of honoring the work and legacy of Miss Major! We hope you too will help celebrate this amazing lover and fighter-who has paved the way for so of many us. Please share, donate or attend if you can. Be part of a historical moment!

Dear friends, family, and community,

You are cordially and joyfully invited to celebrate the retirement of our Executive Director and lifelong movement leader Miss Major Griffin-Gracy! We hope you will join us to celebrate this momentous occasion and to ensure that our leader has the resources she needs on her journey through her elder years. Her epic retirement party will take place on Sunday, October 25th, from 4-8pm at the Bently Reserve in downtown San Francisco. In addition to marking Miss Major’s retirement in style, this event will also mark the beginning of new leadership at TGIJP, as we welcome Janetta Johnson, Miss Major’s daughter and protégé, into her new role as Executive Director. Regardless of whether you are able to join us at the party, please help celebrate MissMajor’s accomplishments by joining Miss Major’s Retirement Circle.

Miss Major’s tireless work fighting for incarcerated TGI people has pushed forward our movement for collective liberation and changed the national discussions around mass incarceration and our communities. As we build energy and power for justice and change, we must also move material resources. Act now to support Miss Major’s retirement and to support TGIJP in continuing our transformative trans liberation work:

3. Amplify our ask for people to join Miss Major’s Retirement Circle! Please lift up, mention, repost and make direct asks for people to connect with and give to Miss Major’s Retirement Circle. Facebook, twitter and other social media reposts and engagement will really help!

Thank you for the ongoing work you do in world to carry forward the work towards trans justice and trans liberation. Thank you for embodying the living legacy Miss Major has built of genderific, fabulous, fierce, freedom-seeking and community-grounded people. Together we can celebrate and show up for her the way she has held and shaped our lives and movement!
In love and struggle,
Miss Major’s Retirement Host Committee

Just as we believe there is no one way to do trans justice, we also believe there is no one way to volunteer or donate!

Over the past few years artist and activist Roan Boucher has donated 50% of all proceeds from his Queers Demand prints to the Trans Justice Funding Project!

In addition to being a fabulous ongoing TJFP sustainer, Roan is also the designer of our logo.

Here’s more about Roan and why he supports TJFP and trans justice.

Name: Roan Boucher

What Pronoun(s) do you prefer: he/him/his

Where do you live: Dripping Springs, TX

How are you involved with the Trans Justice Funding Project?
I think a lot about funding and fundraising and general ways that money is shared and leveraged and used and talked about within movements, and I get excited about projects like TJFP that are committed to doing these things in smart accountable ways. I heard about TJFP when it was first getting off the ground and I was really excited about the vision, so when I made these posters about queer social justice it felt like a really good opportunity to support TJFP by donating some profits from the posters. So far they’ve raised over $1,800 for TJFP, and I’ve been able to donate consistently over time as orders come in, which is awesome. (Also I got to design TJFP’s logo!)

Why is trans justice work or funding trans justice work important to you?
The work that TJFP’s grantees do is so important, particularly because it is work that addresses a wide spectrum of the issues that impact trans people. So often it is only a few specific issues that are seen as “relevant” to trans people, but really trans people and communities are affected in particular ways by all the systems that distribute resources and manage how people function in the world. Trans people so rarely get a voice in the systems that affect us, so it’s really important to support organizations that are led by trans folks and focus on the issues that we identify as most important in our lives. Plus, so many of the kinds of things that often make life hard for trans people – like not being able to get proper IDs, being profiled by police, having difficulty finding jobs and housing because of prejudice, having kids taken away – all these are things that make life hard for lots of targeted communities in different ways. I think that often, through doing trans justice organizing, the groups that TJFP funds are exposing these systems as violent and unfair across the board, and working to make changes that will benefit not only trans people but all people.

Do you have any hopes or wishes for TJFP for the next few years?
To keep gathering momentum and raising money and building connections between and awareness of organizations doing awesome work! So many of the groups TJFP funds are small, grassroots groups doing incredibly important work in their communities and not always getting a lot of attention or support outside their communities. TJFP fills a really important role not just of raising money but also building political analysis/awareness around trans justice and what it looks like on the ground. I want to see this work continue, and build momentum and support around forms of trans and queer organizing based in social justice rather than the mainstream marriage/military/capitalist assimilation kinds of goals that currently get tons of funding and attention!

If you see yourself as an ally to trans justice work, how do you see your role as an ally and/or do you have anything to say to other allies?
I think we all are hopefully allies to each other, right? I identify as trans, but various kinds of privilege buffer me from a lot of the forms of transphobia that TJFP’s grantees are working to end. I think being an ally means seeing all of our liberation as bound up together – that we can’t truly win justice for some trans people without winning justice for all trans people. That’s why I’m so excited by trans organizing that centers racial and economic justice, and organizes around justice for trans people in places like prisons, welfare systems, the immigration system – places that are sites of a lot of intersecting forms of violence. I think that the best way to build justice and safety for all trans people is to center the people who are facing the worst forms of transphobia and start there.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not volunteering at TJFP?
I work with my amazing and dreamy facilitation worker co-op, AORTA (Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance). I parent a pretty amazing 11-month-old baby. I recently moved home to Texas and am busy building home and family and community in the hill country outside of Austin. I work from a distance with POOR Magazine in the Bay Area, helping support them in building the Homefulness project, which is a housing and organizing and media-creating and community-building space by and for poor people. I make art. I do a lot of nerdy kitchen fermentation projects and generally like to cook things and grow things and do many projects of all sorts.
Thank you Roan for inspiring and moving us with your artwork and support. We heart you!

Wow Seattle friends and family, you really showed up big time to support last week’s TJFP Happy Hour fundraiser! It was a perfect Saturday evening in the Herb Garden of Cafe Flora to celebrate local trans justice work and raise some money.

Over 40 people gathered to eat, drink, be in community and help TJFP raise over $1,600. The garden was completely filled with great people and a lot of love.

We can’t even begin to tell you how honored we were to host our very first TJFP event in Seattle with each and everyone of you.

A very special thank you to our grantee’s First Rain and Gender Justice League for joining us to share your amazing work, to former TJFP panelists and fabulous guest speakers of the evening, Andrea Jenkins and Bamby Salcedo, our Happy Hour super star volunteers, James, Andrea, Joyful, Becky, Kristen, Melanie and Kyle. And HUGE shout out to TJFP Happy Hour co-host (and original panelist) Kiyomi Fujikawa!

This event wouldn’t have been the same without the incredibly generous donations from Cafe Flora (Thank you Nat and Alison) and stunning photography from, Naomi Ishisaka. If you are local, please consider supporting Cafe Flora, and Naomi. They are wonderful!

And finally, TJFP wouldn’t be able to exist without your donations and words of encouragement. Our deepest gratatitude to our Seattle donors and that have been with us over the last three years and new donors we met last Saturday. We are absolutely creating a new way of funding vital work across the country!